cut a tape

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
cut a tape
 vi.

   To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape for
   shipment. Has nothing to do with physically cutting the medium! Early
   versions of this lexicon claimed that one never analogously speaks of
   `cutting a disk', but this has since been reported as live usage.
   Related slang usages are mainstream business's `cut a check', the
   recording industry's `cut a record', and the military's `cut an
   order'.

   All of these usages reflect physical processes in obsolete recording
   and duplication technologies. The first stage in manufacturing an
   old-style vinyl record involved cutting grooves in a stamping die with
   a precision lathe. More mundanely, the dominant technology for mass
   duplication of paper documents in pre-photocopying days involved
   "cutting a stencil", punching away portions of the wax overlay on a
   silk screen. More directly, paper tape with holes punched in it was an
   important early storage medium. See also {burn a CD}.
    
from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
cut a tape

   To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape
   for shipment.  Has nothing to do with physically cutting the
   medium!  "Cutting a disk" has also been reported as live
   usage.  Related slang usages are mainstream business's "cut a
   check", the recording industry's "cut a record", and the
   military's "cut an order".

   All of these usages reflect physical processes in obsolete
   recording and duplication technologies.  The first stage in
   manufacturing an old-style vinyl record involved cutting
   grooves in a stamping die with a precision lathe.  More
   mundanely, the dominant technology for mass duplication of
   paper documents in pre-photocopying days involved "cutting a
   stencil", punching away portions of the wax overlay on a silk
   screen.  More directly, paper tape with holes punched in it
   was an important early storage medium.

   [{Jargon File}]
    

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